The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling the flow of articles from an upstream delivery station to a downstream receiving station; and more particularly to an apparatus wherein articles can be accumulated between an upstream delivery station and a downstream receiving station, and fed to the downstream receiving station in a first in first out (FIFO) sequence.
Heretofore, accumulators have been utilized between an upstream delivery station and a downstream receiving station to accumulate articles when the capacity of the downstream receiving station is either shut down or run at a speed wherein it cannot handle the number of articles being fed by the upstream delivery station. One particular accumulator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,325. One problem with such accumulators is that the last article fed into the accumulator is the first article fed out of the accumulator and, as a result, it is difficult to keep track of the batch from which a particular article came from, and the sequence in which the articles are fed from the upstream delivery station.
Attempts have been made to produce accumulators wherein the first in is the first out article as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,858.
The present invention is particularly adapted for use wherein an upstream delivery station may be a filling station for placing contents into a package and feeding them to a downstream receiving station wherein the package is placed in boxes. It of course can be used in many different industries wherein there is a need to control the rate of flow of articles between an upstream delivery station and a downstream receiving station.